JP2011508249A - Large display system - Google Patents

Abstract

The system robustly distributes data to a large LED display formed by multiple display panels. The system includes a plurality of data hubs, each display panel being connected to at least two data hubs for receiving redundant data for each pixel of the panel. In addition, each data hub is connected to at least two panels of the display for providing pixel data for each pixel of the panel to which the data hub is connected.
[Selection] Figure 1

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION This application is co-pending US patent application Ser. No. 12 / 001,277 entitled “Data And Power Distribution System and Method For A Large Scale Display”. Copending US patent application Ser. No. 12 / 001,312, entitled “Enumeration System and Method For A LED Display” and “Large Scale LED Display” Related to co-pending US patent application Ser. No. 12 / 001,315, entitled “Display”, each filed concurrently with the present application.

  Federally supported research or development declaration Not applicable (N / A)

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to large LED display systems, and more particularly to a system for delivering data to a large LED display.

Conventional technology

  LED displays formed by a large number of LED modules are known, and each LED module is used for one pixel of the display. Each of the LED modules has a number of different color LEDs and controls its intensity to generate a number of pixels of different colors. Examples of these well known types of LED displays are shown in Phares US Pat. No. 5,420,482 and Yoksza et al. US Pat. No. 5,410,328.

  In both Phares US Pat. No. 5,420,482 and Yoksza et al. US Pat. No. 5,410,328, LED modules are connected in series or in a daisy chain configuration, A stream is input to one LED module, which extracts a subset of the data for that module from the data stream and continues the rest of the data stream or the entire data stream to the next LED module Pass to. Lys et al. U.S. Pat. No. 7,253,566 and Mueller et al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,016038, respectively, disclose a luminescent or lighting system, which is a daisy chain configuration or binary Including LED light-emitting units or nodes connected in a tree configuration, two nodes are connected to the output of one node. In these known systems, one processor provides data stream I to the LED module or node, which then sends the data stream to the next module or node in the chain. If communication between the processor and the LED module is interrupted, the system becomes inoperable.

  The present invention overcomes the shortcomings of conventional systems that deliver data to LED displays. In accordance with the present invention, a system and method for providing data to a large LED display that is much more robust than conventional systems is provided.

  According to one aspect of the present invention, the display system includes a plurality of display panels, each panel being formed of a two-dimensional array of LED pixel modules, each pixel module having a plurality of multicolored colors. A housing that supports the LED and a controller that controls the saturation of the LED of the module in response to the received pixel data. The display system also includes a plurality of data hubs, each display panel being connected to at least two data hubs for receiving redundant pixel data for each pixel of the panel. A hub is connected to a different pixel module of the panel, and each data hub connects to at least two panels of the display to supply pixel data for each pixel of the panel to which the data hub is connected Has been.

  According to another feature of the invention, each data hub is connected to at least two pixel modules of each panel so that at least four pixel modules of each panel directly receive redundant pixel data for each pixel of the panel. Has been.

  According to yet another feature of the invention, each of the panel's pixel modules that receive the redundant data directly from the data hub distributes the received data to a plurality of other pixel modules of the panel and then the other pixels. The module distributes the received data to a plurality of further pixel modules of the panel. This data distribution continues until all the panel data is distributed to all the panel pixel modules.

According to yet another aspect of the invention, the plurality of pixel modules of the display can receive data directly from any one of the four other pixel modules.
These and other advantages and novel features of the present invention, as well as details of exemplary embodiments thereof, will be more fully understood from the following description and drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an LED display system according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a partial front view of a part of the LED display shown in FIG. FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a data hub of the LED display system of FIG. 4A is a block diagram of the FPGA of the data hub of FIG. 4B is a block diagram of the FPGA of the data hub of FIG. FIG. 5 is a block diagram of a master LED module according to the present invention. 6A is a block diagram of the FPGA of the master LED module of FIG. FIG. 6B is a block diagram of the FPGA of the master LED module of FIG. FIG. 7 is a block diagram of a slave LED module according to the present invention. FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram of a pulse width modulation circuit that controls the intensity of the LEDs of the master and slave modules. FIG. 9 is a block diagram of a power hub according to an embodiment of the present invention.

  The large scale LED display 10 for indoor and outdoor use according to the present invention has a height × width dimension of about 3 m × 6 m to 24 m × 32 m, or about 10 ft × 20 ft to 80 ft × 105 ft. However, it should be appreciated that the present invention can be used with larger and smaller displays. A display of about 24 m × 32 m has 480 pixels × 640 pixels, ie a total of 307,200 pixels. Such a display 10 is so large that only a portion of the display is shown in FIG. Furthermore, because of its size, a robust display is desired. As will be described in detail below, the data and power distribution system and method of the present invention provides such a robust display, even if one component failure is a display or a single row or column of the display. It will not be disabled.

  Each pixel of the display 10 is generated by a module 12 or 14 having two red LEDs 16, two blue LEDs 18, and two green LEDs 20 mounted in a housing 22, as shown in FIG. As will be described below, the circuitry within module housing 22 controls the intensity of the red, green, and blue LEDs to generate a number of differently colored pixels. This is well known in the art. Each of the modules 12, 14 is shown in FIG. 2 as having a pair of red, green, and blue LEDs, although the number of red, green, and blue LEDs can vary depending on the individual LED. May vary depending on the light flux density and / or the spacing between the individual modules. Details of the mechanical and / or structural features of the support structures of modules 12, 14 and display 10 are disclosed in co-pending US patent application _______ entitled “Large Scale LED Display”. By quoting this application here, the contents thereof are also included in the present application.

  The display 10 employs two types of pixel modules, a master LED module 12 and a slave LED module 14. Each master module is associated with a group of slave modules in the segment 24 of the display. According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, each segment 24 has one master module and 15 slave modules, generating 16 pixels of the display. However, the number of slave modules can vary from 0 to any number, depending on the aspect of the invention used. In the preferred embodiment, the segments 24 of the display 10 are straight and extend in the column direction of the display 10. However, these segments can also extend in the row direction of the display. Further, these segments need not be straight, but can be formed of blocks of modules that include at least one master LED module. In a 480 × 640 display with 16 pixel linear segments, there are 30 segments 24 in each column of the display. These segments 24 are preferably aligned so that each master module is in one row of the master module. Thus, a 480 × 640 display has 30 rows of master modules, each of which has 640 master modules, and each row of master modules has 15 rows of slave modules.・ There are modules.

  Each master LED module 12 is connected to an adjacent master LED module in the row, allowing direct communication between them. Each master module is also connected to the master module of the adjacent segment in the row, allowing direct communication between them. Thus, the master module can communicate directly with up to four other master modules and each of the 15 slave modules in the master module segment.

  The display 10 is composed of a large number of panels 26 and 27 in order to make deployment easier. According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, each panel has 16 columns of LED modules and the maximum height panel has 480 rows of LED modules, but each of the display panels has a desired height and width. Any can be used. If a 480 × 640 display has 16 rows of display panels, 40 display panels are used. Each display panel 26 can receive redundant data to control all of the pixels of panel 26 from two data hubs, a main data hub 28 and a redundant data hub 29. Each of these data hubs provides two adjacent display panels 26 and 27 by providing two data streams, one data stream to panel 26 and the other data stream to panel 27. Supply data for all of the pixels. In addition, each data hub can supply redundant data to each display panel over two data cables. Thus, the data hub 28 can supply all of the data for the pixels of the display panel 26 on the data cable 30 and redundant data for the panel 26 on the data cable 31. The display panel 26 can receive the same data for all of the pixels of the panel from the data hub 29 on the data cable 32 or data cable 33. Accordingly, the display panel 26 can receive data on any one of the four data cables 30, 31, 32, and 33 from the two data hubs 28, 29. The data hub 28 can also supply all data for the pixels of the display panel 27 on the data cable 34 and redundant data for the panel 27 on the data cable 35. Display panel 27 receives the same data from data hub 29 over data cable 36 or data cable 37. Accordingly, the display panel 27 can receive redundant data on any one of the four data cables 34, 35, 36, and 37.

  The redundant data stream received by the display panel 26 on the four data cables 30-33 is input to four respective master LED modules. However, in the preferred embodiment, only one of the four redundant inputs at a time is active and carries pixel data. If the existing connection fails, only the main data hub allows redundant connections. Further, if it detects that the main data hub is no longer driving the panel, only the redundant data hub sends data to the panel. Each master module that receives the data stream extracts data destined for the master module and its associated slave module within the segment. Each master module that receives the data stream then outputs the data stream to the adjacent master module in the row and to the master module in the adjacent segment. This is discussed in detail below. Each master module can also extract data for its segment from the received data stream and send only the remainder of the data stream to the other master modules. However, in the preferred embodiment, each master module does not extract its data from the data stream, but acts as a repeater to extract a copy of the data for that segment from the data stream before receiving the received data. Pass the entire stream directly to up to three other master modules. Thus, the data stream of the display panel 26 will be distributed across the panel 26 by each of the master modules 12. The master module 12 can receive data streams from up to four other master modules 12, so that if one or two master modules fail, the display can be displayed as in prior art systems. Does not become inoperable, and even entire columns or rows of the display do not become inoperable. If one master module fails, only 16 of the 307,200 pixels of the 480 × 640 pixel display 10 are affected. If one slave 14 module fails, it does not affect any other module in the display 10.

  The system for controlling the display 10 as shown in FIG. 1 includes a main controller 40. The main controller 40 includes a central processing unit (CPU) 42 and associated memory to control and monitor the rest of the display system. The main controller 40 also includes a video processor 44. Video processor 44 may be uncompressed video or MPEG4 or H.264. Compressed video in any format such as H.264 can be received. Video processor 44 scales the video to the size of display 10 and provides uncompressed digital video in a conventional raster scan format to communication hub 46. The communication hub 46 includes a memory such as SRAM and a microcontroller. The raster scan video data is stored in the memory of the communication hub 46. Video data from the communication hub memory is read from the memory and transferred to the data hubs 28 and 29 in reverse order, one column at a time, with the pixel data at the bottom of the first column being the data first. -It is to be transferred to the hub. In one embodiment, each packet of data sent by communication hub 46 to data hubs 28 and 29 includes a column header that identifies the column number of the data in that packet, followed by a segment header. The segment header includes a segment number associated with the data. The segment header can also include a control word that identifies the status request and a pixel count that identifies the number of pixels in the segment. The pixel count counts the number of bytes of subsequent pixel data for each module in the segment. The segment pixel data follows the segment header, and 3 bytes of data are sent for each pixel to control the intensity of each of the red, green and blue LEDs of the pixel. In an alternative embodiment, the communication hub or data hub can send a different type of packet to the display panel, where the packet includes a packet type identifier. Different types of packets that can be sent include master module location messages, display data and / or control messages, master module status requests, and slave module status requests. The packet containing the pixel data includes a master module address formed by the column number and segment number of the master module and at least one slave module address, and the slave module address is followed by the slave module address. Module LED data follows. Note that each master module includes a slave module microcontroller circuit to control the LED of the master module. The slave module microcontroller in the master module has a slave module address. Therefore, the master module has a master module address and an associated slave address for its LED microcontroller. The display data packet also includes a command. This command identifies subsequent data as display data for an individual master or slave module or as display data for a segment of modules. This alternative packet structure allows for greater flexibility so that different packet types can be sent to the display panel with various commands.

  Communication hub 46 sends a redundant data stream containing data for the entire display 10 on a pair of GbE links 48 and 49 connected to respective data hubs 28 and 29. In response to the received data stream, each data hub extracts two columns of data columns controlled by the data hub. The data hub passes the rest, or the entire data stream as received, to another data hub. In this way, the data stream is distributed one after another between data hubs for all of the data hubs in the display system. Specifically, the data hub 28 receives a data stream containing data for the entire display 10 over the GbE link 48. The data hub 28 extracts the data in columns 1-16 destined for the display panel 26 and the data in columns 17-32 destined for the display panel 27, and then sends the entire data stream to the data hub 51 in GbE. Deliver on link 50. Data hub 51, on the other hand, sequentially extracts data destined for the next pair of display panels, display panels 52 and 53, and then passes the entire data stream to data hub 56. Similarly, the data hub 29 receives a data stream containing data for the entire display 10 on the GbE link 49. Data hub 29 extracts the data in columns 1-16 destined for display panel 26 and the data in columns 17-32 destined for display panel 27, and then the entire data stream is sent to data hub 55 as GbE. Deliver on link 54. Data hub 55 extracts data destined for display panels 52 and 53 and passes the entire data stream to data hub 58. The delivery of the data stream is continued for each pair of data hubs until all of the data hubs controlling the display panel 10 have received their video frame data. Data distribution then continues for all frames of the video presentation.

  The structure of each data hub is shown in FIG. Each data hub includes a dual GbE interface 60. As described above, the dual GbE interface 60 is connected to either the communication hub 46 or the upstream data hub, and is further connected to the downstream data hub. The received data stream is stored in the SRAM 64 by the data hub FPGA 62. The data hub FPGA 62 stores data in the SRAM 64 and reads data from the SRAM 64 in accordance with software / firmware stored in the flash memory 68. The data hub includes four data ports 70-73 for LVDS cable. The LVDS cable connects the data hub to a pair of display panels. For example, in data hub 28, ports 70 and 71 are connected to LVDS cables 30 and 31 that go to the two master LED modules of panel 26, and data ports 72 and 73 are connected to the two master LEDs of display panel 27. Connected to LVDS cables 34 and 35 to the module.

  In addition to transferring video data to its associated pair of display panels, each data hub also performs diagnostics on its display panel. Power is supplied to the data hub from the associated power hub as shown in FIG. The data hub monitors the status of its associated power hub and communicates the status of its associated power hub and its associated display panel to the communication hub 46 of the main controller 40. As shown in detail in FIG. 4, the data hub FPGA 62 transfers video data and messages destined for the display panel and main controller 40 to and from the SRAM 64 for direct memory access (DMA). A shared memory controller.

  Each structure of the master LED module 12 is shown in FIGS. Each master module includes a microcontroller 80 and associated drive circuitry as shown in FIG. 8 to control the intensity of the red LED 82, green LED 84, and blue LED 86 of the master module 12. The microcontroller 80 of the master module 12 controls the LEDs in a manner similar to that described in detail below for the slave module 14, and the microcontroller 80 associates the associated slave module address as described above. Have In addition to performing the LED control functions described below with reference to FIG. 8, the microcontroller 80 of the master module 12 may determine whether the master module FPGA controller is in accordance with the configuration information stored in the flash memory 88. 90 is programmed. Each master LED module 12 includes four bi-directional ports: a north port 91, an east port 92, a south port 93, and a west port 94, which are coupled to the module's FPGA controller 90. The master module controller 90 communicates with each of its associated slave modules through a common I2C serial bus 92 connected to the north port 91. The controller 90 communicates with up to four other master LED modules 12 through respective LVDS cables connected to ports 91, 92, 93 and 94.

  The power of the master LED module 12 is received through a data hub from a power cable coupled to the module 12 from the power hub as shown in FIG. The power received by the master LED module is not regulated and is 15-36 volts D.D. C. Range. A switching voltage regulator 96 in the module 12 adjusts the input voltage and drops it to 9V. The 9V rail voltage is distributed through the north port 91 to the slave LED modules in the master module segment. Block 98 in the master module 12 includes another switching voltage regulator that drops the 9V rail to 3.3V. Similarly, a pair of linear voltage regulators inside block 98 will drop 3.3V to 2.5V and 1.2V to match the master LED module FPGA controller 90.

  The FPGA controller 90 includes a downstream packet multiplexer 100 as shown in FIG. Downstream packet multiplexer 100 is coupled to respective data ports 91-94 via input filter asynchronous serial receiver and data decoders 100-104 and input filters 105-108. The receiving unit and the decoders 100 to 104 receive and restore the data stream at each port. Each input filter 105-108 sends each input stream back to the data hub as a hub stream, ie, data originating from a data hub for downstream delivery, or from an MLM stream, ie, a master module. Is identified as data such as a response packet or a reply packet. The input filters 105 to 108 transfer the packet first only when the input stream is valid. Downstream packet multiplexer 100 selects one of the four input ports as an upstream port and forwards the packet originating from the data hub to the selected upstream port. If the packet originating from the data hub is an enumeration packet, the packet is forwarded to a master module location state machine, eg, controller / processor 112.

  The master module positioning state machine 112 performs a positioning process to determine the position of the master LED module within the display panel 26, ie the address of the master LED module, and addresses each pixel of the display individually. Make data available there. The location process performed by state machine 112 is as follows. When the display 10 is turned on, the master LED module address register that holds the segment number and column number of the master module in the position state machine 112 is zero. The first received master LED module location message is generated by the data hub and simply contains the segment number and column number of that hub. A location message from the data hub is sent to only one master LED module. If that master module does not respond to the data hub, the locate message is sent to another master LED module that is directly connected to the data hub. When the master LED module receives the position specification message, it determines its own position, ie, address, in the display as follows. When a message is received on the master module's south port 93, the locate state machine 112 sets the master module's segment number equal to the incremented segment number in the received message by one, and Set the module column number equal to the column number in the received message. If a locate message is received through the west port 94 of module 12, locate state machine 112 sets the module's segment number equal to the segment number in the received message and receives the master module's column number. Set the column number in the received message equal to the value incremented by one. If a locate message is received through the module's north port 91, the locate state machine 112 sets the module's segment number equal to the value decremented by 1 from the segment number in the received message, and sets the column number to Set equal to the column number in the received message. Finally, if a locate message is received through east port 92, locate state machine 112 sets the module's segment number equal to the segment number in the received message and sets the column number to the column number in the received message. Is set equal to the value decremented by 1. The segment number and column number determined for the master module are stored in the module address register. The locate state machine 112 overwrites the segment number and column number in the received locate message with the segment number and column number determined for that module. The positioning state machine 112 then receives the received positioning message from three of the bidirectional ports 91 to 94, that is, from the ports other than the one port 91 to 94 that first received the positioning message. To one of the other master modules.

  As noted above, at any point in time, one input port 91-94 is selected as the source of display data and messages from the data hub, and this selected input port becomes the upstream port. It is specified. The downstream packet multiplexer 100 selects as an upstream port the port that declares or identifies the hub stream for which the associated input filter is first valid, ie, the stream originating from the data hub. The remaining three ports 91-94 are designated as downstream ports. The upstream port is used in the downstream packet multiplexer 100 to determine which hub stream to forward, and in the upstream packet multiplexer 109, which port is monitored for upstream packets. Is used to determine whether to detect. Upstream packet multiplexer 109 forwards the MLM stream in the reverse direction towards the data hub. If the upstream port selection is valid and the stream is a valid hub stream, the hub stream received through the selected upstream port will be 3 through the 3 downstream ports from the master LED module. Transfer and output to one of the other master LED modules. In the reverse direction, if the upstream port selection is valid and the stream is a valid MLM stream, an MLM reply message is received at any of the three downstream ports and the selected upstream port In FIG.

  Two conditions trigger the downstream packet multiplexer 105 to select a different upstream port. That is, the synchronization from the data decoder associated with the initial upstream port is lost, or the type of stream received at the current upstream port replaces a valid MLM stream. If any of these conditions occur, the downstream packet multiplexer 100 waits 1 ms and performs the upstream port selection process as described above.

  Master packet processor 113 is a data hub packet addressed to the master module, or a data hub packet with segment and column header fields all zero, ie, broadcast as used in the location process. • Process the message. After the positioning process for display 10 is complete and each of the master LED modules has determined its position, ie segment number and column number in the display, and has further selected an upstream port, the master LED module master Packet processor 113 can extract video data addressed to the segment from the data stream. In order for the master LED module of the master packet processor 113 to extract video data addressed to the segment, the address of the master module is detected in the received data packet, and the data addressed to the master module is detected. • Process the packet. The extracted pixel data is written into the message FIFO 108 by the packet processor 113. The command byte at the end of the message is written to the command FIFO 115. Command FIFO 115 also holds information indicating whether the received message ended at the normal end of the packet indication, and a message byte count indicating the number of bytes of the received message in message FIFO 114. To do. In response to a command in the command FIFO 115, the I2C controller 116 reads the message from the message FIFO 114 and processes it. The controller sends a valid message on the I2C bus 92 so that the message is broadcast to each of the master module microcontroller 80 and the segment slave modules. In addition, the controller 116 sends slave LED module response data or status response messages to the upstream processor 117.

  The upstream processor 117 of the FPGA controller 90 maintains master LED module status information, including the status of all four of the receivers 101-104. The upstream processor 117 caches the slave module status information received on the I2C bus 92 in the internal RAM. In response to the strobe from the packet processor 113, the upstream processor 117 generates a master module and slave module status reply message. In addition, since the processor 117 transfers the status reply message received from the other master module via the downstream port and the upstream packet multiplexer 109, the status of each of the modules of one display panel is transferred. Will eventually be returned to the data hub of the display panel. The status message is coupled through the upstream FIFO 119 from the upstream processor 117 to the upstream transmitter encoder 118, which transmits the transmitters 121-124 of the selected upstream ports 91-94. Is bound to. Similarly, the state machine 112 passes the hub stream received through the master module's upstream port to the three designated downstream transmitters 121-124 associated with the three downstream ports 91-94. Are coupled through a downstream FIFO 125 and a downstream transmitter encoder 126.

  The master LED modules 12 are connected in a mesh shape, and each of the master modules 12 is connected to four other master LED modules 12 except for those along the edge of the display panel 26. It should be recognized that Each master module 12 in this set can receive data from any of the four other master LED modules to which it is connected. However, each of the master modules 12 responds to a data stream from one master module connected to its upstream port. As mentioned above, a given master module responds to a data stream from a master module connected to its upstream port, extracts data from it, and receives the received data stream as its Send to three other master LED modules connected to each of the three downstream ports. If the first master module fails and the module is connected to the upstream port of a given master module, the upstream port of that given master module will have its downstream packet Multiplexer 100 allows you to change to a different port so that a given master LED module can receive a data stream from one of the other three master LED modules to which it is connected. Since each master LED module can receive data from up to four other master modules, the data distribution scheme of the present invention is very robust.

  FIG. 7 shows the structure of the slave LED module 14. Each slave LED module 14 includes a linear voltage regulator 131. Linear voltage regulator 131 drops its rail voltage to 3.3V in response to 9V from the associated master LED module. Each slave module 14 also generates a red pulse width modulation (PWM) control signal, a green PWM control signal, and a blue PWM control signal. These control signals are coupled to respective drive and sense circuits 132, 133, and 134. The drive and sense circuit 132 is coupled to a pair of red LEDs 136 of the slave module 14 to control the intensity of the red LEDs. Circuit 133 is coupled to a pair of green LEDs 138 on slave module 14, and circuit 134 is coupled to a pair of blue LEDs 140 on slave module 14 to saturate the saturation of each green and blue LED. Control. Each of the drive and sense circuits 132, 133, and 134 is shown in detail in FIG. As shown therein, the microcontroller 130 outputs a PWM control signal that drives the gate of the MOSFET 142 via the series limiting resistor 144. When microcontroller 130 drives the gate of MOSFET 142 high, MOSFET 142 turns on and passes current through LED 136. Once the voltage on the source resistor rises high enough to bias transistor 146, transistor 148 connected to the gate of MOSFET 142 is turned on and the voltage from the source resistor rises further. Suppress. Resistors 150 and 152 have the same value. Furthermore, the frequency of the PWM control signal is preferably about 10 kHz. The master LED module microcontroller 80 controls the LEDs of the master module by the same drive and detection circuit shown in FIG.

  Master and slave module microcontrollers 80 and 130 have analog inputs for receiving red, green, and blue color detection signals. The microcontroller monitors these detection signals to determine whether each LED is on or off. This information is included in the status information for each of the slave and master LED modules 14 and 12. Each of the microcontrollers 80 and 130 also includes a built-in temperature sensor that senses the temperature of either the master module or the slave module. The microcontroller can turn off the module's LED if the temperature sensed for the module exceeds a predetermined limit.

  FIG. 9 is a block diagram of a power hub according to the present invention. In the display 10 having a height of 480 pixels, one power hub is provided for each display panel having 16 columns of pixels. For a panel with half the maximum height, ie 240 pixels high, one power hub is provided to power two adjacent display panels each having 16 columns of pixels. . In a panel having a quarter height of the maximum height panel, i.e., a height of 120 pixels, one power hub is used to power four adjacent display panels each having 16 columns. Is provided. Each of the power hubs 160 is a three-phase A.P. C. About 30V rectified and filtered D.E. C. Convert to voltage. Regulated voltage is not supplied by the power hub 160. Voltage adjustment for the display 10 is performed by switching voltage adjustment in the master LED module of the display and linear adjustment in the slave LED module. Each power hub includes a transformer 162 that preferably has a phase shift winding and an input voltage selection tab. The transformer 162 is a three-phase A.I. C. Input is received through three-phase breaker 164 and main relay 166. In soft start operation, transformer 162 is also coupled to three-phase breaker 164 via soft start resistor 168 and soft start relay 169. The output of the transformer is coupled to a pair of three-phase bridge rectifiers 170 and 171. The outputs of rectifiers 170 and 171 are coupled to a pair of clamp filter inductors 172 and 173, respectively, and the outputs of clamp filter inductors 172 and 173 are coupled to a dump output capacitor 174. Capacitor 174 has 64 D.P. C. Via circuit breaker 178, four D.P. C. Coupled to output connector 176. Four D.D. C. Output connector 176 has a maximum height of 16 D.D. in each of the 16 columns of the 480 pixel display panel. C. Has a power drive.

  The power hub 160 also includes an auxiliary transformer 180. The auxiliary transformer 180 is connected to the A.D. C. Coupled to one phase of input. The monitoring and control board 184 monitors all the power hub sensors and the voltage from the auxiliary transformer 180. First, the main relay 166 and the soft start relay 169 are opened. If the monitoring and control board 184 detects an incorrect signal due to the auxiliary transformer voltage 180, the activation is interrupted. If the signal is correct, the controller 184 first closes the soft start relay 169, the fan 186 relay, and the strip heater relay 188. In addition, the control unit 184 applies 24V to the external logic at this time. At this stage, the capacitor 174 can be charged slowly. If the voltage ramp rises too quickly or does not reach the correct output voltage, the control unit 184 opens the soft start relay 169 and interrupts activation. When the correct voltage is reached, the main relay 166 is closed and the soft start relay 169 is opened. At this point, power supply to the display 10 can be started.

  It should be noted that the strip heater 188 is employed to remove unwanted humidity and prevent undesired conduction paths leading to short circuit or shock hazards. These heaters are controlled by the monitoring and control board 184 to turn on the heater 188 only when necessary. A fan 186 is provided to cool the power hub 160. In the preferred embodiment, the fans have speed sensors and the monitoring and control board 184 responds to these speed sensors to provide warnings to avoid fan failure. A thermostat 190 is provided for the heat sink and magnetic circuit of the power hub 160. The monitoring and control board 184 includes a temperature sensor to provide an early indication of overheating. When the temperature of the power hub 160 exceeds a predetermined level, the monitoring and control board 184 turns off the main relay 166 to stop overheating. In addition, the monitoring and control board 184 is connected to the D.B. C. The output voltage is continuously monitored. If the control unit 184 detects an output voltage that is too high, the control unit 184 opens the main switch 166.

  Many modifications and variations of the present invention are possible based on the above teachings. Therefore, it goes without saying that the invention can be put into practical use other than the above description within the scope of the appended claims.

Claims (20)

A display system,
A plurality of display panels, each panel being formed by a two-dimensional array of LED pixel modules, each pixel module responding to received pixel data and a housing supporting a plurality of multicolor LEDs A display panel having a controller for controlling the saturation of the LEDs of the module;
A plurality of data hubs, each for allowing a display panel to receive pixel data for each pixel of the panel from one or more of the data hubs to which the display panel is connected; A data panel is connected to at least two data hubs, each data hub is connected to a different pixel module of the panel, and the data hub is a pixel of the panel to which the data hub is connected A data hub, wherein each data hub is connected to at least two panels of the display in order to be able to supply pixel data every time;
A display system.   2. The display system according to claim 1, wherein each data hub is connected to at least two pixel modules of each panel so that at least four pixel modules of each panel directly receive redundant pixel data for each pixel of the panel. Display system.   3. The display system of claim 2, wherein each of the four pixel modules of the display that receives redundant data directly from the data hub distributes the received data to a plurality of other pixel modules of the panel. Display system.   4. A display system according to claim 3, wherein the plurality of pixel modules of the display can receive data directly from any one of four other pixel modules.   2. A display system according to claim 1, wherein the pixel modules of the display are arranged in columns and each data hub transfers data column by column to the panel.   The display system of claim 1, wherein the data supplied by a data hub includes a column header identifying the column of the display, followed by data for each pixel of the column. .   7. The display system of claim 6, wherein the data supplied by the data hub includes a segment header that follows the column header, the segment header identifying a segment of pixel modules in the identified column. A display system in which data for each pixel module of the segment follows the segment header.   The display system of claim 1, comprising a plurality of power hubs, each power hub being fitted with at least one panel of the display. C. D. C. A display system that converts electricity.   The display system of claim 1, wherein each data hub is connected to a D.B. C. D. receive power and D. from the power hub to the display. C. A display system that distributes power. A display system,
A plurality of display panels, each panel being formed by a two-dimensional array of LED pixel modules, each pixel module responding to received pixel data and a housing supporting a plurality of multicolor LEDs A display panel having a controller for controlling the saturation of the LEDs of the module;
A plurality of data hubs, each for allowing a display panel to receive pixel data for each pixel of the panel from one or more of the data hubs to which the display panel is connected; A data panel is connected to at least two data hubs, each data hub is connected to a different pixel module of the panel, and the data hub is a pixel of the panel to which the data hub is connected A data hub, wherein each data hub is connected to at least two panels of the display in order to be able to supply pixel data every time;
A plurality of power hubs, each power hub aligned with at least one panel of the display; C. D. C. A plurality of power hubs, each of the plurality of pixel modules in the first group including a voltage regulator that converts unadjusted power into adjusted power for the plurality of pixel modules in the second group;
A display system.   The display system of claim 10, wherein the voltage regulator includes at least one switching power regulator.   11. The display system of claim 10, wherein each data hub is connected to at least two pixel modules of each panel so that at least four pixel modules of each panel directly receive redundant pixel data for each pixel of the panel. Display system.   13. The display system of claim 12, wherein each of the four pixel modules of the display that receives redundant data directly from the data hub distributes the received data to a plurality of other pixel modules of the panel. Display system.   The display system of claim 10, wherein the plurality of pixel modules of the display can receive data directly from any one of four other pixel modules.   11. A display system according to claim 10, wherein the pixel modules of the display are arranged in columns and each data hub transfers data to the panel column by column.   11. The display system of claim 10, wherein the data provided by a data hub includes a column header identifying the column of the display, followed by data for each pixel of the column. .   11. The display system of claim 10, wherein the data provided by the data hub includes a segment header that follows the column header, the segment header identifying a segment of pixel modules in the identified column. A display system in which data for each pixel module of the segment follows the segment header. A display system,
A plurality of display panels, each panel being formed by a two-dimensional array of LED pixel modules, each pixel module responding to received pixel data and a housing supporting a plurality of multicolor LEDs A display panel having a controller for controlling the saturation of the LEDs of the module;
A plurality of data hubs, each for allowing a display panel to receive pixel data for each pixel of the panel from one or more of the data hubs to which the display panel is connected; A data panel is connected to at least two data hubs, each data hub is connected to a different pixel module of the panel, and the data hub is a pixel of the panel to which the data hub is connected Each data hub is connected to at least two panels of the display, and a first data hub connected to the first display panel, in order to be able to supply pixel data every time, All the displays are connected to a second data hub connected to a display panel to which the first data hub is not connected. And supplies the data, and a plurality of data-hub,
A display system.   19. A display system according to claim 18, wherein a third data hub connected to a second display panel provides data for the entire display to a fourth data hub.   20. A display system according to claim 19, wherein the fourth data hub is connected to a display panel to which the third data hub is not connected.

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